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The St James's Place financial sales force has dealt a further blow to fund manager Invesco Perpetual as it tries to cope with life without its former star employee Neil Woodford.

St James' Place has decided to follow Woodford and switch £3.5 billion in three funds to his new firm at Oakley Capital.

Woodford has run the St James' UK Equity , UK High Income and Income funds for much of his career and it was always likely they would follow him to his new venture. However, Invesco Perpetual would have hoped they could have stayed with Woodford's successor Mark Barnett, who is also taking on his giant Income and High Income funds.

The loss of the business comes on top of a steadly outflow of money by investors and advisers in Invesco Perpetual's flagship income funds since Woodford announced his departure last year. In New York shares in its Invesco's parent company fell nearly 3%, leaving them flat for the year.

Oakely Capital's head of retail Craig Newman said: 'We are delighted that St James’s Place wants Neil to carry on managing money on behalf of its clients, ensuring that their long-term relationship continues. It is a huge endorsement, not only of Neil, but also of Woodford Investment Management, which is currently seeking regulatory approval.'

In another setback SJP said it would also drop Invesco Perpetual from the £3.2 billion Strategic Managed fund and replace it with rival Threadneedle. A £700 million Global Equity Income fund also goes to Manulife Asset Management.

Founded by Lord Weinberg, St James' Place pioneered the use by insurers of external fund managers. Today it announced it would put £5 million into a new Emerging Markets Equity fund to be managed by Wasatch Advisors of the US.

St James' Place chief investment officer Chris Ralph said: 'This round of appointments and fund changes is the most significant and high profile in our 23 year history. These changes are important in terms of the number of clients affected and the scale of the assets involved.'

May I just point out that the use of external fund managers by insurers was introduced and pioneered by Paul Bradshaw at the launch of Skandia Life in 1979. Whilst Mark Weinberg did many things for the unit linked business this was not one of them.

The funds involved are clearly the baby of Woodfo I think it would be prudent if the money was shared out with Barnett taking a competetive share. The returns are not that good if you take into account how much St James plasce charge for their services.rd, where he goes the money goes with him. What if he drops down dead or retires early? I would have thought it more prudent to share out the funds with Barnett left with a competetive share. The returns are not that good after the charges levied by St James Place.

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